Whose fault is it that the rates are so low?

The number of trucks vs the number of loads determines the rates. That's given.
So when the rates are low, whose fault is it?


The ones with already existing fleets to have bought more trucks and trailers?
The ones who bought the trucks and trailers for the first time?
The ones who go out there and try to make a living with what is available out there?

Or is it anybody's fault at all?

Can you blame someone for not wanting to sit and idle and wait for the rates to improve? The problem is that sitting at home is not an option for everyone. The rates won't magically change overnight and when you have 1000 trucks posted and 1000 loads, there's always going to be someone looking at DAT and calling for whatever there is. The dispatch companies from Pakistan and Bangladesh have nothing better to do than keep staring at the screen 24/7. That's how they advertise anyway.

So, what is the logic behind someone saying that by taking this cheap load, they screw things up for everybody else?
Explain that to me...as I don't get it. Do they mean that I should not take that load for available rate but leave it alone for a few more hours so they can beat me to it and get a few hundred more on it? OK. But then I won't have nothing and tomorrow ain't likely to get any better.

Let's stick to the spot market and forget about the direct freight for the sake of the discussion. That's all subjected to the connected vessels law anyway. The low rates on the spot market affect the contract rates inevitably. In any case, is the spot market already a forlorn idea to make a living?

 

Mad? How so?

You never picked freight on the spot market, anyway, did you?

 

Not exactly it pertains to me as I have an established opinion on this already. It is simple. I will not stop running as long as I am able to produce enough profit to sustain my livelihood without resorting to using my savings or going into debt. It is not like I could be better off at a different job all of sudden.

I'd want to understand the logic which many exercise here e.i. don't take cheap freight and the freight rates will improve. Don't shoot yourself in the foot.

Should someone with a truck and trailer payment stop running and let his equipment be repossessed or should they fight to the end, and those who survive are the winners?


If the prices of grains are low, should the farmers stop selling what they already produced and provided that the storage is full or too expensive, should they destroy the crops or sell them so they have some profit.